Switzerland’s image has been shaped decisively by tourism. It has always been possible to market the country successfully with photographs of spectacular mountain panoramas and rural idylls. Now the national tourism organisation, Switzerland Tourism, is availing itself of its 100th anniversary in 2017 to highlight the connection between travel and photography. Under the direction of the Fotostiftung Schweiz and the Musée de l’Elysée, five internationally famous photographers have been invited to, as it were, shed light on Switzerland – unimpeded by any advertising commission. What Alinka Echeverría, Shane Lavalette, Eva Leitolf, Simon Roberts and Zhang Xiao observed while doing this is both inspiring and revealing. Their exciting, poetic and intriguing images invite viewers to see the familiar with new eyes.

Like everywhere else in the world, in Switzerland too photography has also played an important role in the development of tourism. In addition to travelling amateurs who guaranteed a permanent dissemination of images of Switzerland, there were also numerous professionals whose works have contributed towards advertising the country. For decades, the Schweize- rische Verkehrszentrale – as Switzerland Tourism used to be called until 1995 – commissioned outstanding photographers to capture the country’s beautiful landscapes and cultural features. Names like Albert Steiner (1877–1965), Hans Finsler (1892–1972), Herbert Matter (1907– 1984) or Philipp Giegel (1927–1997) stand for both technical quality and inventiveness and modernity. Their photographs made a significant contribution to the national identity. However, the corresponding repertoire of images, distributed around the world in all possible forms, also resulted in numerous clichés.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Switzerland Tourism in 2017, the national tourism marketing organisation has launched an unusual experiment: instead of allocating advertising commissions, as is customary, it invited five eminent photographers to capture their own independent views of Switzerland and present them in an exhibition. The project was devised by the Fotostiftung Schweiz and implemented together with the Musée de l’Elysée (Lausanne). Switzerland Tourism provided financial and logistical support, but exerted no influence on either the theme proposed by the participants or on the resulting works.

When selecting the photographers the exhibition curators placed great store by different perspectives: the artists were to be clearly distinguishable in terms of their origins, working methods and previous knowledge of Switzerland. They were requested to develop personal essays rather than reportages. The aim was not to show a representative image of Switzerland, but to provide an opportunity to see the familiar anew and from a subjective vantage point. The result? Five fundamentally different travelogues about an island at the heart of Europe – a plurality of views of Switzerland.

Shane Lavalette (USA) visited the same twelve communities that the Swiss photographer Theo Frey had portrayed for the national exhibition or "Landesausstellung" in 1939. Almost 80 years later, he confronted Frey’s documentary work with a kind of travelogue-diary shaped by atmospheres and encounters. Simon Roberts (UK) focussed on the relationship between people and landscapes. He sought out various viewing platforms and in so doing himself acted as an observer of observers who seemed to prefer to observe themselves through their smartphone cameras despite the impressive backdrop. Alinka Echeverría (Mexico/UK) engaged with young people who are at a crossroads in their lives and at the mercy of the living conditions prevailing in their country – tomorrow’s Switzerland. Zhang Xiao (China) travelled along the river Rhine and produced a collection of fascinating and humorous visual question marks – the first series he has done outside of China. Eva Leitolf (Germany) travelled Switzerland’s borders in a caravan, sometimes looking in, sometimes out, while at the same time wondering where Switzerland begins and where it ends.

An initiative of the Fotostiftung Schweiz, co-produced with the Musée de l’Elysée and with the support of Switzerland Tourism.

The anniversary "100 Years Tourism Promotion Switzerland 1917–2017" is supported by Coop as presenting sponsor.

Parallel to the exhibition Lars Müller Publishers will release a book entitled "Unfamiliar Familiarities": five artists’ books complemented by a textbook and combined in a slipcase.